Songs of Winter

When I came in to work today, the first day in over two weeks when I don’t have anything to worry about, I was determined to make it my day of music, albums back to back. On a whim I put on the Fleet Foxes' album from last year, then The Arctic Monkey’s Humbug, and finally Antony and the Johnsons’ The Crying Light. You couldn’t have three more dissimilar albums, or three more dissimilar bands for that matter. While the tripping melodies and harmonies of Fleet Foxes are by now as familiar to me as a favourite blanket, Humbug is dark and brooding, fascinating in the details, but claustrophobic in the main.

And what can I say about The Crying Light? Its one of the most haunting and intriguing albums I’ve ever heard, and not only because of Antony Hegarty’s voice or his sexuality. As I type, he is singing seductively, teasing me to kiss his name. Joy.

So let’s get straight to my Songs of Winter, shall we?

Julian Casablancas- Phrazes for the Young

I don’t know about you, but for me any new Strokes related release is a cause for celebration, especially when its such a weird pop album like this one. Keyboards, slow soul, Krautrock, drum machines, surf guitar, loud brass…boy does he pile it on thick on this album, sometimes all of these things in the same song! But the man’s way with melody and his uber-sexy voice totally does it for me, every time I hear it.

Antony and the Johnsons- The Crying Light

Although it came out way back in January (which is when I acquired it), I’m listening to it more often- probably because winter’s approaching. These are sophisticated torch songs, flowing with melancholia that inspires, rather than saps. The baroque strings, the playfull jazz times, the beautiful melodies, and above it all, Antony Hegarty’s tremulous, mournful/playful voice weaves a rich tapestry of shadow and light.

The Beatles- Remastered boxsets, Mono and Stereo

What can I say? I’m shameless. But the detail! Its like a window to a world wiped clean of dust after a long shower. My favourite album turns out to be Beatles for Sale. Curiouser and curiouser.

Pearl Jam- Backspacer

I’ve never been too great a fan of them. So when people told me their new album was pretty great, it didn’t make much of a difference to me. Having heard it- though only twice- I can say that individual songs ARE actually pretty good, especially where they give themselves some space to stretch out.

Arctic Monkeys- Humbug

I don’t know what to make of this album. Its maddeningly dense, and many of the riffs and tempos and melodies sound like each other. There are lovely little bits of detail though. A fabulous manual of how to write a modern Indie rock album.

Love- Forever Changes

Not particularly new in my affections. No modern band has been able to capture the melodies, the songwriting, the hope, despair, ennui and rage of this diamond of an album.

Paul McCartney- Chaos and Creation in the Backyard

I just can’t tire of this album. Its just so sure-footed in its pop nous that its stunning. Just listen to the way the arrangement builds up in Friends To Go, and you’ll see what I mean.

The Supersonics- Maby Baking

I truly think this is the best Indian rock album of the year, full of stupid lyrics, great melodies, interesting arrangements, and tons of rock songs that stick in your head. The boys from Calcutta have swallowed The Strokes and Britpop whole, and have come up with this superb debut. I love Blotter.

The Strokes- Is This It? and Room On Fire

When in doubt, put on The Strokes!

Well, these are what I’ve been hearing to, obsessively. Of course, I still haven’t stopped playing Bitte Orca, the best album this year by a long, long mile.

Note to myself- Have to hear the new Devendra Banhart album.

Songs of Summer

As I write this, Graham Coxon's punk guitars are raging through my headphones. I love the rush. But after an entire weekend of hearing giddy punk pop, I'm wondering if I've reached saturation point. Just consider:

Graham Coxon- Happiness in Magazines; Love Travels at Illegal Speeds. The Blur guitarist is the coolest man I've seen, from the haircut to the Elvis Costello glasses, to the melodicity of his guitar playing....and now this, a couple of albums of great to middling pop songs.

Fastball- Little White Lies. Maybe its not cool to like them, but 1998's All the Pain Money Can Buy is still one of my favourite pop albums from that decade. This new album is quite nice too, especially the title track and all those melodies and hooks that stick under my skin like some insidious rash. They aren't cool for sure, but heck they're fun!

The Strokes- Room on Fire. Two years after my Strokes craze, I finally hear their second album in full. A lot less giddy fun than Is This It? but then again first contact is always more electrifying. I love 12:51 and Under Control, but none come anywhere near You Talk Way To Much...perhaps because of the sentiment, or perhaps that's the song where they do theirbest Velvet Underground impersonation. I'd like to see them live.

Dirty Projectors- Bitte Orca. What drew me to them was the fantastic pop moment of Knotty Pine, their collaboration with David Byrne on the charity LP Dark Was the Night. Now for someone like me, Dirty Projectors are a difficult band. I thrive on hooks, and with this band, you have to dig deep AND be patient to find them, and then you find quite a few actually. Cannibal Resource is a fantastic song, as are Temecula Sunrise, Stillness is the Move, and the wispy and beautiful Two Doves. I love it especially when they all scream "Bitte Orca, Orca Bitte!!!" Don't even know what that means.

Doves- Kingdom of Rust. Ok I know that the big production move in Noughties Indie is the atmosphere. Its everywhere, that echoey, down-in-the-bottom-of-a-well-sound- from Arcade Fire to Fleet Foxes to Coldplay (!) to these here gents, the Doves. Their playing is great-muscular, melodic and serious but not too serious. And this album has some really good songs- Jetstream, Kingdom of Rust (with its lovely muted country rock chug which becomes something much more explosive and beautiful by the time the chorus comes about, followed by the sparkling guitar arpeggios). But why did they have to go with the in vogue thing, and make it all so spacey? I guess I love Vampire Weekend cause their sound's so crisp.

Manic Street Preachers- Journal for Plague Lovers. I like the politics of the Manics, unabashedly left of centre. But as it so often happens, the band with the most attractive politics hardly ever match it with exceptional music. So though I've liked the occassional Manics songs over the years, they've always seemed to me to be one trick poneys, wailing anguishedly over metallo-punkish guitar walls of sound. Therefore, I'm very very pleasantly surprised with this album. This is harrowing music, both lyrically and in its musical bite, and it all makes sense, in no small part due to the fact that there's a lot of different textures to the guitars which keeps the songs interesting all the time...I'll be getting more into it, I'm sure.

Green Day- 21st Century Breakdown. I know Rolling Stone is bullshit, but even then, how could they give this album four stars? If I like the Manics for the guitars, I hate this album because of the guitars. While some of the songs veer between interesting and likeable- the opening three songs for example- the monotone growl of the guitars playing identical figures on each and every song grates like nothing else. Only the bits where they try to do a Gogol Bordello are fun. I despair...I love the Green Day of Dookie and Nimrod but all this big RAWK CONCEPT ALBUM EMPTY CLICHES, GESTURES and immature facile politics leave me cold. Which begs the question, should Green Day be a sideproject to The Foxboro Hot Tubs, instead of the other way round?

The Decemberists- Hazards of Love. Heard this bizzare concept album about princesses, and forest dwelling shape shifters and evil queens and swans et al just once from start to finish. Its very lush, very melodic, and I suspect that as long as I'm not trying to follow the story or some such shit, I might just spend a lot of time humming the hooks.

Franz Ferdinand- You Could Have it so Much Better. Thrilling, super virile, very sexy rock. Therefore, very demanding too..."Well do ya, do ya do ya wanna?" God, the pressure to have a good time! I think Eleanor Put Your Boots On is a classic.

Various- Dark Was the Night. The charity LP I was talking about. A veritable Indie who's who. However, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the Indie crowd only does acoustic-y head music and leave the body to Hip Hop. However, of the 31 songs here, there are quite easily at least 25 very good songs. Favourites-

Dirty projectors and David Byrne- Knotty Pine

Feist and Ben Gibbard- Train Song

The National- So Far Around the Bend

Grizzly Bear and Feist- Service Bell

Beirut- Mimizan

My Morning Jacket- El Caporal

Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings- Inspiration Information

The New Pornographers- Hey, Snow White

Cat Power- Amazing Grace

Riceboy Sleeps- Happiness

....and finally....

TV on the Radio- Dear Science,

I spent all of last year wanting to hear this album, and now that I have heard them- over and over and over and over again- I agree with the critics. I haven't heard any of their other albums, but a band that can mix the post-Apocalypse tom toms and handclaps of Halfway Home, the absurdly lovely funk guitars on Crying, the propulsive Rap Rock of Dancing Choose, the majestic Golden Age, the stately melodic shifts of Family Tree, the funk politics of Red Dress, the Radiohead beauty of Love Dog and the brass-led sexual healing of Lover's Day into the same album could only be a great band.

Others I've heard, but not much yet: Neko Case- Middle Cyclone. The National- Boxer. The Mars Volta- Octahedron. Sonic Youth- The Eternal. Supergrass- Life on Other Planets.